Classic Car Mart Magazine Vol.19 No.13 MGF vs TF Back Issue

Rather unintentionally, there’s something of a ‘forgotten classics’ theme running through this issue. Starting with the MGF v TF comparison, the TF tends to be dismissed as ‘too soft’ by those not in the know when in reality the heavily reworked MGF was more serious and more uncompromising as a sports car than the MX-5. And I speak from experience, having covered some 4000 miles this summer in the example pictured in our feature. Overall impressions? Well the big surprise was its
faultless reliability but although the TF has its faults (that harsh ride among them), you can’t knock the appeal of the zestful K-Series motor, especially like ours in remapped form and the fun to be had from the car for really not very much outlay. The TF has now gone from my driveway, replaced by something from the other end of the British classic car spectrum in the shape of a 1972 Triumph Toledo. Again it’s something of a forgotten car, all the attention going to the bigger Dolomite but the Toledo is fascinating if only for its place in the history of Triumph and BL. A prestige small car in the mould of today’s small BMWs, with its wooden dash it would have been a definite cut above the
comparable Fords and Vauxhalls of the day and was priced accordingly yet lacked any real competition... other than the cars also from within the BL empire... The humble charms of the
Toledo are a world away from the aspirational glamour of the ’90s coupes we’ve rounded up this month and these are cars new enough for me to remember driving every single one of them new, yet they’ve mostly all but disappeared. Little did I know as I boarded Ford’s chartered jet for the press launch of the Cougar that I was witnessing the unveiling of what would become such a rare car. I can still remember the gift of a keyring in the shape of the Cougar badge which a few years later I sold online to a chap in the USA with a classic Mercury of the same name.